The present invention relates to a device for optimum broadcasting of information in a telecommunication system.
The field of the invention is that of multimedia telecommunication services. In particular, Internet access from mobiles is a prime potential application for a broadcast device according to the invention.
The invention is intended for broadcasters seeking to increase the effectiveness of their information campaign through improved targeting of the groups of persons concerned via a telecommunication network.
Until now, the broadcasting of information over a telecommunication network has conformed to specific techniques. These include the “pull” technique whereby a content provider makes information that it wishes to transmit available in a database. Customers access the information after finding out the address of the database. The address can be the subject matter of a conventional publicity campaign using posters, television, radio, or other databases belonging to other content providers. This technique is essentially used on the Internet. Pull techniques thus enable users to access the specific information they require and thereby to obtain good quality of access to the information. The information is inherently targeted since it results from a selection made by the user.
However, pull techniques are not suitable for broadcasting. They can be used only on condition that the user has been advised beforehand of the existence of the information made available on the network. Thus the broadcast audience is small, even if the percentage of the population interested in the transmission is large in proportion to the population as a whole.
Information can also be broadcast using “push” techniques. For a content provider, this consists in broadcasting widely the information that it wishes to transmit. Customers then access the broadcast information via appropriate receivers, either free of charge or subject to a payment. Radio and television are excellent examples of the applications of push information broadcasting techniques. Although push techniques minimize bandwidth occupation compared to pull techniques, the same information generally being conveyed only once to a given node of the network, the quality of the information made available to users is very poor compared to that obtained with pull techniques. The information transmitted corresponds to an a priori targeting of the fields of interest of users and a person receiving information via this kind of communication channel is faced with a large amount of information that is not necessarily of interest to him.
Selection devices for specifying their fields of interest have therefore been made available to users. International patent application WO 00/23864 relates to a device of this type intended for use by advertising agencies and enabling them to send information to customers for whom they have a specification defining a respective individual profile. However, this device necessitates knowing the users to whom the information is broadcast beforehand.
The arrival of the mobile Internet and future generation mobile radio networks, including satellite mobile radio systems, necessitate the installation of mechanisms for broadcasting information that offer high performance.